Eva Avidar

Israel

Jerusalem

My Choice

Eva Avidar’s naked self-portrait biting an apple investigates the partial self, and the sculpture’s construction involved an intimate journey of self-compassion. The artist battles with an internal colonisation of cancerous cells. The invisible forces of destruction are manifested externally via scars from a breast mastectomy and liver transplant. While for Christians the forbidden fruit is a metaphor for illegal or immoral indulgences or pleasures, for Jews the apple is a symbol of hope in Rosh Hashanah celebrations. This double-entendre of the apple is magnified as some viewers will think that the apple is choking the protagonist. But for the artist, the apple is a positive symbol. Her body is a source of knowledge and cultural production that defies traditional essentialist identities for women. Avidar makes art and celebrates her vibrant creative agency as a retort to her fugacious existence. La lucha continua!